Posted January 23, 2024
Dear Swigert Families,
Last Friday we hosted a coffee for parents around our social emotional programming at Swigert. We had a great discussion around the importance of social emotional learning as well as the increase in need we are seeing in our students. At the school level, Kim Irk, our School Psychologist, works with our staff to implement school wide practices. These practices focus on supporting students in understanding their feelings and providing language and tools to support emotional regulation. Some of our Tier 1/universal practices include restorative justice practices (4-part apology, age appropriate conflict resolution practices), implementing Second Steps lessons as needed, and utilizing the Zones of Regulation curriculum in every classroom. Meghan Montgomery is also doing classwide lessons on Mindup, which shares about the neuroscience of the brain and helping students to understand how their emotions and learning are tied together. Each lesson offers easy strategies for helping students focus their attention, improve their self-regulation skills, build resilience to stress, and develop a positive mind-set in both school and life.
Zones of Regulation: You might hear your kids saying they are in the “Blue Zone” or the “Red Zone” and wondering what that means. This is all part of the Zones of Regulation curriculum which helps students identify how they are feeling and what tools/strategies they might need for emotional regulation. Every classroom incorporates various ways for students to check in with these zones and includes a ‘regulation station’ area if a student needs to take some time to implement tools and strategies to help them with their own emotional regulation throughout the day.
You can view Ms. Irk’s presentation on our current student supports here – there are ideas and ways for you to support some of the practices at home- strengthening that important connection of school and home working together as a team. On our website we also include specific information on our social emotional programming as well as a presentation we did last year on student anxiety and perfectionism. We are seeing more anxiety in our students since covid. Here is this slide show with resources here – Anxiety and Perfectionism
Both of these resources live on the website to reference back to them in the future: https://swigert.dpsk12.org/academics-programs/social-emotional-supports/
Sincerely,
Shelby Dennis
shelby_dennis@dpsk12.net
Second District Spelling Bee Results from Tuesday, January 22nd at Westerly Creek:
Swigert Spellers held their own in Tuesday’s bee. 5th Grader Alma Critton made it to the championship round and one of our former Semantics, Natalia Lucio, now a 7th grader at DGS came in second.
Champion: Quintin Whitworth, DGS Northfield, Grade 8
2nd: Natalia Lucio, DGS Northfield, Grade 7
3rd: Finn Meyer, DGS Northfield, Grade 8
4th: Phoenix Sbrocca, Westerly Creek, Grade 5
5th: Alma Critton, Swigert, Grade 5
Winning Word: ravenous
Tomorrow is the last day to order your yearbooks! If you aren’t sure whether you’ve ordered one, you can check at yearbookforever.com (you have to check hardcover and softcover separately) or email Daphne in the office. Softcover yearbooks are $35.25 each (including shipping) and hardcovers are $40.25 each.
Virtual Magnet Eligibility Question and Answer Session Postponed to the 1/23: If your child recently became ME through one of our Gifted and Talented Assessments and you have questions regarding this designation or school choice options, come join our Gifted and Talented Coordinator, Mrs. Bresnahan, for a zoom session on Tuesday, January 23rd from 4:30 – 5:10. If you plan to come or would like to come but cannot make the talk, please fill out this form so we can better prepare and share resources with those who cannot make it. Good Meet call link: https://meet.google.com/knx-kqvi-urx
Some of our students now have smart watches and cell phones, and we want to reiterate our school policy. Smart watches are ONLY used as watches during the school day. Please don’t call or text with your students during the day through the smart watch. Students should not be calling home or using apps at any time. If they need to call home during the day they need to ask permission from a staff member. Phones are to be put away before class starts in your backpack and not be used during the day. If there is a change of plan for a pick up please notify Daphne at the front office and your teacher. If phones or smart watches are being used incorrectly in class, teachers will take the phone or watch for the remainder of the school day and return it to the student at the end of the day.
If you haven’t signed up yet for the science fair, this week is the last week to do so. Registration will close on January 31st.
Students will bring poster boards with them to school on March 1st, or any day of the week of Feb 26-March 1st. Please remember to label your poster with your student name and grade.
Winners will be announced in the evening 5:30 pm-7:00 pm on March 1st. If you have any questions please visit our website: https://www.swigertsciencefair.org
1st and 3rd grade families:
The 1st and 3rd grade concerts are coming soon!
The 1st graders will present “Storytelling” and the 3rd graders will present “Immigration” on Thursday, February 1.
At 5:45 PM, 1st grade students will meet in their classrooms. Their concert begins at 6:00 in the gym.
At 6:25 PM, 3rd grade students will meet in their classrooms. Their concert begins at 6:40 in the gym.
Dress for this concert is nice clothes.
If you cannot make it to the evening concert, you may attend the dress rehearsals, Wednesday January 31 and Thursday February 1 during the school day: 10:25 (3rd grade) and 2:10 (1st grade).
See you there!
Does your Swigert student have a talent they want to share? Have them sign up for our first ever talent show! Important information and dates below.
Dates:
1/30 – Auditions (3:30-5:30 in The Nest)
2/13 – Rehearsal (3:30-4:30 room 304)
2/21 – Dress Rehearsal (3:30-5:30 in the gym)
2/22 – SHOW NIGHT! 5:30 PM in the gym
link – https://www.swigertpta.com/spirit
We’d love to connect with you as much as possible. You will be automatically added to our weekly Swigert Eagle newsletter that comes out every Tuesday during the school year. Please also visit our website at www.swigert.dpsk12.org to learn more about Swigert and events that are coming up. You can also join our “Friends of Swigert International School” private Facebook page – www.facebook.com/groups/friendsofswigert. When requesting to join, please include a note to say you are a new family. We post pictures of events at school, interact as a school family, and you can see friendly reminders of upcoming events. Who to contact if you have questions about:
| ROLE | NAME | |
| Instruction, Programing, etc | Shelby Dennis Amber Holthus-Pera | Shelby_Dennis@dpsk12.net Amber_Holthus-Pera@dpsk12.net |
| Daily School Life | Emily Pool | Emily_Pool@dpsk12.net |
| Registration | Daphne Jolley | Djolley@dpsk12.net |
| Technology and events | Richard Fisher | Richard_Fisher@dpsk12.net |
| Health | Nurse Hoang Tran | Hoang_Tran@dpsk12.net |
| IB Program, Service Learning | Caroline Dane | Caroline_Dane@dpsk12.net |
| Swigert PTA | Cortney Dickey | president@swigertpta.com |
Key Dates
February 1st: 1st and 3rd grade music concerts
February 16th: No School, Green Day
February 19th: No School, President’s Day
March 1st: Swigert Science Fair
March 8th: ECE not in session, K-5th there IS school
March 13th: PTA meeting, 6pm
March 25th – April 2nd: No school, Spring Break